1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to storage and filing devices, and particularly to improvements in files and portable storage devices for such files.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A perennial problem for travellers is to keep their belongings organized throughout the journey. This is particularly difficult for business travellers, who may, in the course of a single journey, have to visit several business associates, and/or visit different places and even different countries, and/or deal with numerous different matters, at the same time being severely restricted as to the amount of luggage they can carry, particularly when travelling by air and staying in hotels. Using conventional luggage, briefcases, and the like, it can be extremely difficult to keep business papers and other belongings organized throughout a journey, and in particular, to keep things separate from one another so that particular papers or other belongings can be located quickly, and so that individual matters can be dealt with expeditiously during the journey and on return to base.
A conventional briefcase, even if provided with multiple pockets, is inconvenient because the contents of individual pockets are not immediately apparent, and it may well be necessary to unpack the entire contents to locate particular things. Carrying individual separate folders in a suitcase or a briefcase can help, but is not a complete solution, as the individual folders still have to be unpacked from luggage and repacked, possibly many times in the course of a journey, leading to inconvenience and untidiness, and unless the user is exceptionally meticulous, such folders will normally be packed and repacked in varying order in the course of a journey, so that what they contain is not always presented to the traveller in the same order.
Loose-leaf products, for example, "Filofax" (Registered Trade Mark) and similar "organizers", are excellent for storing and presenting information such as dates and notes, but are of little use for organizing things like bills, letters, reports, tickets, currency, and the numerous other pieces of paper and other articles that travellers commonly put in briefcases or pockets.
Consequently, there is a need for a device which will enable the traveller to organize his papers at the beginning of and during a journey, and to maintain that organization and, in particular, the distribution and order of presentation of individual matters throughout the journey, which is capable of being easily carried and occupies little space when in use, for example, in a hotel room.
It is known to provide a storage device with a series of envelopes attached one to the other by connecting means. An example of such a construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,396, issued Nov. 17, 1987.
The bags described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,396 are permanently attached to each other. Further, the attachments are short strips extending from the front face of one bag to the rear face of the adjacent offset bag. Such a construction requires that the front and rear faces of the bags be reasonably rigid and that the bag construction be strong in order to transfer the weight of succeeding bags and their contents without otherwise deforming the bags.